TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
that a Monmouth County man was today charged
in a state grand jury indictment with allegedly
distributing child pornography on the Internet.
The defendant was among more than three
dozen people arrested in October 2007 as
part of “Operation Silent Shield,”
an investigation that targeted offenders
who distributed known images and videos
of child pornography via the Internet.
The
state grand jury indictment charged Nelson
Gaffney, 53, of Wall, with two counts of
second-degree distributing of child pornography
and one count of fourth-degree possession
of child pornography. The indictment alleges
that between August and October 2007, Gaffney
knowingly used Internet file sharing software
to make multiple files containing child
pornography readily available for any other
user to download from a designated “shared
folder” on his computer. A search
warrant executed by the New Jersey State
Police on Oct. 4, 2007 revealed 86 movie
clips containing child pornography on Gaffney’s
computer.
The
Digital Technology Investigation Unit of
the New Jersey State Police coordinated
the investigation. Deputy Attorney General
Valerie Noto presented the case to the state
grand jury.
The
indictment is merely an accusation and the
defendant is presumed innocent until proven
guilty. Second-degree crimes carry a maximum
sentence of 10 years in state prison and
a $150,000 fine, while fourth-degree crimes
carry a maximum sentence of 18 months in
prison and a $10,000 fine.
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